“Sympathizers are spectators; empathizers wear game shoes.” -John Eyberg I have been so lucky in my professional life. From the tight band of women who were my grad school friends and are now librarians and archivists all over the US to the friends and connections I made through my work in YALSA to the people…
As most of you know, I LOVE CANADA. Oh, how I love Canada. (Canadian publishers and libraries looking for employees: hit me up.) The past two years I have spent my annual long vacation in Toronto, attending the Toronto International Film Festival and wishing I lived there. I spend a lot of time waiting in…
I use fiction as a way to interpret my life and survive my hurts I was going to try to get to that, like, eventually. I was going to make a bunch of big grand allusions and metaphors and then, ta-dah, I would reveal it all cryptic-like. Ooooh, everyone would marvel I see what she…
Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan won the 2010 Morris Award. As most of you reading this blog probably already know, the Morris Award is, and always will be, dearly close to my heart, as I just finished my first ever selection committee work on the 2011 Morris Award Committee. I heard, first-hand, the way the…
What with one thing and another, I just sat down and re-read all of Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books. These were books I loved as a child. Several of the copies I re-read were, in fact, my own childhood copies. In the front of Ramona Quimby, Age 8 I had written, in neat cursive, “I Love…
Debbie Reese is my blogging heroine, my blogging role model. If there’s one blog I wish my blog could be like, it’s Reese’s American Indians in Children’s Literature. She was the model for what I wanted this blog to be like. She says things people don’t always want to hear, whether it’s about Little House…
It’s me! A wonderful, blurry picture of me, snapped by the fabulous Allen Zadoff at the beginning of my pre-conference. (I didn’t take any pictures because I wasn’t really thinking …) The YA Lit Symposium was a great time, especially once I survived my pre-conference! I attended some really interesting and exciting sessions. (and only…
Well, there it is: my big, fat body. I’m standing in the Gulf of Mexico, in the middle of a luxurious vacation with a group of my closest friends, enjoying my life and my world and having a wonderful time with people who love me, but I can see as how this would gross you…
“The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives.” –Armistead Maupin Happy National Coming Out Day! I thought it was important to begin this post with the word “happy” because … well, that’s an important part of an important conversation, something that shouldn’t be forgotten. Recently,…
REJOICE, THE BLOG IS BACK FROM THE DEAD!! (peeks around) I hope some people are actually still out there reading? Hello? Please forgive my absence, I hope some readers are still around! ZOMG, has it really been over a month!?? I can’t believe it’s been this long between posts! Getting back in the habit of…
